Hi Bill,
Jet 4.0 SP8 will be available in the next several weeks; an unfortunate
timing issue resulted in Access 2003 being released before SP8 was made
available on Windows Update. We're working as quickly as we can to make this
update available to you.
You don't need to disable Sandbox mode as it is not enabled on you computer.
The fact that you are getting this warning in the first place indicates that
it is not enabled. At this point, there are three actions you can take
between now and when SP8 is released:
1. Do nothing. You will continue to be prompted every time you open a
database. This won't affect how the database works, just what you see when
you open it.
2. Set your Macro Security to Low. This will make the warning go away.
Before you do this, you should read the Access 2003 help topic "About
helping protect files from macro viruses" so that you have a clear idea what
Macro Security is for and the ramifications of setting it to Low. To do this
you open the Security dialog from the Tools | Macro | Security menu item. If
this item is not in you menu list, first, try expanding the menu to show all
options by either clicking the chevron (small double arrow) at the bottom of
the menu; if it is still not visible, you need to reset your menus. You can
reset you menus by opening the Tools menu and clicking Customize. In the
Customize dialog, select the entry for the Menu Bar and click Reset. Answer
OK when prompted to reset the Menu Bar. After this, the Security entry
should be available on the Tools | Macro menu.
3. Manually turn on Sandbox mode. This will make the warning go away. Jet
4.0 SP7 also supports a Sandbox mode that works in Access, although there
have been a few issues reported in SP7 Sandbox mode that will be corrected
by SP8. (These issue may or may not affect you database, the most obvious
issue is that some queries that use VBA functions start failing to return
data, instead returning #ERROR.) Instructions on how to turn on the Jet
Sandbox are documented in the KB article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;294698. By the end
of the week, this article will contain updated information about how Sandbox
mode works in Jet 4.0 SP7 and which expressions you should expect to be
blocked.
If you choose to leave Sandbox mode turned off because of the few issues
existing in Jet 4.0 SP7, I would urge you to turn it on once you install Jet
4.0 SP8. The ability to block unsafe functions such as Shell and Kill when
called in expressions or in queries provides an added level of safety when
you are running an Access database. Once you have installed SP8, you can
turn expression blocking on by opening the Security dialog from Tools |
Macros | Security and selecting a security level of either Medium or High.
When you click OK, you should be prompted to turn on Expression Blocking,
click OK and follow the instructions. Even if you ultimately decide that you
want to have your security level set to Low, you will have the option to
continue blocking unsafe expressions the next time you set your security
level.
Regards,
Mike Wachal
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
